$93 Billion Will Be Illegally Wagered On NFL And College Football

Darren Heitner
, ContributorI cover the intersection of sports and money.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

If you need proof that a federal ban on sports betting is failing, look no further than new estimates released by the American Gaming Association (AGA), a national trade group that represents the United States casino industry. According to the AGA, a total of $95 billion will be wagered on National Football League and college football games throughout the course of this season. A whopping $93 billion (or 98%) of that figure will be wagered through illegal channels.

The disparity between legal and illegal betting on football games is nothing new. The AGA reports that Americans made roughly $3.8 billion of illegal bets surrounding the Super Bowl played by the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. Only $100 million was bet legally on that event.

Why is there such a vast difference in money spent legally versus illegally on major sporting events, including those involving NFL and college teams? It dates back to the installment of the Professional & Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), which was enacted in 1992 and remains federal law to this date. PASPA is a federal law that prohibits sports gambling across the United States; however, it includes a carve-out that grandfathers in certain states that had pre-existing sports wagering statutes in place when the Act was made a law.

PASPA grandfathered Nevada, Delaware, Oregon and Montana and their pre-existent forms of sports betting, with the most sweeping type of sports betting form found within the borders of Nevada, which is largely why most legal betting occurs in Las Vegas. For instance, Delaware offers a more limited form of sports betting wherein wagerers cannot bet on the outcome of a single game, but instead must partake in parlay betting and predict the winners of at least three games. There is marginal interest in this form of betting as compared with the sports wagering permitted in Nevada and craved by individuals in states where all forms of sports betting is deemed to be illegal.

Thus, the vast majority of sports bets are made illegally -- to the tune of an estimated $93 billion for NFL and college football games this season alone. AGA analyzed the federal government’s conservative estimate of illegal sports betting ($80 billion) in 1999 and the growth in legal football betting to determine an estimate for overall betting on the 2015 football season. The same methodology was used to estimate Super Bowl wagering numbers.

There is no hiding that the general public is involved in making illegal wagers and that broadcasters have succumbed to the desires for Las Vegas style betting lines.
ESPN's flagship college football program, College GameDay, has embraced the spread, having its commentators make predictions as to whether college football teams will cover the generally agreed upon betting lines. Other major networks have incorporated overt references to teams covering spreads as well.

In an interview with Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated, Lee Fitting, coordinating producer for College GameDay explained,

"We recognize that fans are very interested in this type of talk. Our goal on College GameDay is to serve the fans and we believe by doing this, from time to time and when we feel it’s right, serves the fan."

Expect the references to sports gambling to increase across all mediums this season. Likewise, do not be surprised by the billions of dollars illegally wagered on NFL and college football games.